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Donald Baverstock: Difference between revisions
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This forced a week-long "crisis" in which all manner of BBC executives, along with [[Verity Lambert]] and [[Donald Wilson]] seriously re-examined the financial assumptions of the show. Baverstock re-instated his 13-week commitment after Lambert and Wilson demonstrated that they could produce the show at a lower cost. The major sacrifice was that ''Doctor Who'' was not able to avail themselves of the [[BBC Visual Effects]] department on a regular basis. This forced [[visual effects]] to be sub-contracted. Thus Baverstock was somewhat directly responsible for the [[Dalek]]s and other significant props being created by [[Shawcraft Models]] rather than the BBC itself. | This forced a week-long "crisis" in which all manner of BBC executives, along with [[Verity Lambert]] and [[Donald Wilson]] seriously re-examined the financial assumptions of the show. Baverstock re-instated his 13-week commitment after Lambert and Wilson demonstrated that they could produce the show at a lower cost. The major sacrifice was that ''Doctor Who'' was not able to avail themselves of the [[BBC Visual Effects]] department on a regular basis. This forced [[visual effects]] to be sub-contracted. Thus Baverstock was somewhat directly responsible for the [[Dalek]]s and other significant props being created by [[Shawcraft Models]] rather than the BBC itself. | ||
Having now satisfied Baverstock as to the seriousness of their financial intent, Wilson and Lambert successfully pressed for extensions to their commission. Wilson received a thirteen-week extension on [[22 November]] [[1963]], in which Baverstock signalled that he'd probably give an ''additional'' thirteen weeks in early [[1964]]. In the event, though — and almost certainly influenced by the December success of ''[[The Daleks (TV story)|The Daleks]]'', he extended on [[31 December]] 1963. | Having now satisfied Baverstock as to the seriousness of their financial intent, Wilson and Lambert successfully pressed for extensions to their commission. Wilson received a thirteen-week extension on [[22 November]] [[1963]], in which Baverstock signalled that he'd probably give an ''additional'' thirteen weeks in early [[1964]]. In the event, though — and almost certainly influenced by the December success of ''[[The Daleks (TV story)|The Daleks]]'', he extended ''Doctor Who'' again on [[31 December]] 1963, and yet again in [[February]] [[1964]]. By [[April]], he was ready to renegotiate contracts with the regulars and move into a second [[recording block]]. | ||
Baverstock was a part of those negotiations, in the sense that he had ordered Lambert to attempt to get the regulars back under contract at the same rate, but to advise him if they didn't accept that arrangement. [[Jacqueline Hill]], [[William Russell]] and [[William Hartnell]] all refused Lamberts initial offer, so Baverstock became directly involved in the situation. Briefly, he tied the whole future of ''Doctor WHo'' to whether the artists would resign on meagre rises. However, he quickly sensed himself in a situation where he would likely be perceived as having a conflict of interest, and sent Lambert to another BBC executive for negotiation assistance. THey agreed to Hartnell's demands and came to a successful conclusion with the other two, whereupon Baverstock finally gave a long term commitment to ''Doctor Who'' that would last until the end of [[season 2]]. | |||
=== Other challenges === | === Other challenges === | ||
